Former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores has turned the NFL upside down with allegations that the hiring process in the NFL is blatantly racist, and is suing the NFL, the New York Giants, Miami Dolphins and Denver Broncos for discrimination.
Flores claims that the his interview for the Giants head coaching job was a “sham” to satisfy the “Rooney Rule” which requires teams interview minority candidates for head coaching jobs, even if they don’t hire one when a final decision is made.
The complaint also includes a text message from Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick where the Super Bowl winning coach allegedly texted Flores to congratulate him for getting the Giants job, later retracting it, admitting he meant the text for Brian Daboll.
The suit also alleges that the Miami Dolphins, its owner Stephen Ross, and General Manager Chris Grier tried to pay Flores “$100,000 per loss” in order to improve the team’s draft position.
The Giants hit back twice, denying the allegations. On Thursday New York issued a statement with a full itinerary that details Flores' s interview with the Giants occurred on January 27, one full day before Big Blue hired Daboll as head coach. The Giants also refute the notion that Belichick was privy to inside information on the Giants head coaching search.
“The allegation that the Giants’ decision had been made prior to Friday evening, January 28, is false. And to base that allegation on a text exchange with Bill Belichick in which he ultimately states that he “thinks” Brian Daboll would get the job is irresponsible. The text exchange occurred the day before Coach Daboll’s in-person interview even took place. Giants’ ownership would never hire a head coach based only on a 20-minute zoom interview, which is all that Mr. Daboll had at that point,” the statement reads.
The Giants add that Flores was a serious candidate for the job, and that owner John Mara was interested in his candidacy once Flores was released by Miami.
“John Mara called Mr. Flores two days after he was dismissed in Miami. Mr. Mara expressed to Mr. Flores in that January 12 call that once we had our new general manager in place, we would begin the process of hiring our head coach and we wanted to meet with Mr. Flores because we considered him a serious candidate for the position.”
The Giants weren't the only ones to hit back. John Elway and the Broncos also refuted claims that the two-time Super Bowl champion and Hall of Famer was drunk in his meeting with Flores.
The most alarming charges made by Flores, were claims that the Miami Dolphins implored a pay-to-lose system, where Flores could get paid $100,000 per loss. If that is true, the Dolphins and the entire league could be in deep, deep trouble.
Meanwhile, the NFL has done a reverse on its initial statement when it called Flores' lawsuit without merit. Commissioner Roger Godell issued a statement Saturday saying that racism or discrimination of any form is contrary to the NFL's values. Goodell also promises that the League will take the allegations seriously and investigate the matter further in hopes of improving the sports policies and opportunities for diversity.
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